Can we "keep our republic"?

More political commentary here...

Just as a sidenote, I know my political thoughts may be stressful to some who might disagree, but I know what I think is not "mainstream", so feel free to disagree. I'm not writing to compel people to agree with me. So, whatever. I'm just saying. So don't get mad at me, ok?

I told you so. I mentioned earlier in the year that if we elected a dud in the primary, the Republicans would be toast. Not that I denigrate John McCain's honourable service to his country, but he is really not a political maverick. He's not conservative, and his economic solutions are more of what got us into this mess in the first place. I'm not upset he lost. I am disappointed to be getting a socialist president (not to mention one who doesn't seem to think babies are all that important) but maybe this will be the kick in the pants that Republicans need to get their act together.

Now let me tell you what I really think. The political system in this country is destined to slide into tyranny as things stand today. We would be much better off with the same system our Founding Fathers first conceived, but since we are no longer a people whose lives are based on absolute truth and morality, our government based on the Constitution can't last. Here are a few quotes I found from John Adams:

"The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty."

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

It's disappointing that our liberties are disappearing. But let's keep reminding each other that this world is not our permanent home, and God is still in control. He is the One who holds the sparrow, and He will certainly take care of His people. I'll remind you, and you remind me, ok?

Lux Venit

Today is the first day of winter. The darkest day of the year. The last few years I have taken a few moments to wax philosophical on the solstice. This is the moment to celebrate the light breaking into the darkness. We thought all hope was lost. It kept getting darker every day. Until the solstice. The "turnaround" day. Hope! The light is coming!

I just read a book by Jessica Prentice, New Moon Feast. I don't agree with everything she writes in this book, but what she says about Christians celebrating the solstice seems to hit the mark:

Christmas has become secular and commodified, but this was not always the case. In the traditional Christian calendar, the Moon of Long Nights corresponded to the period of Advent, which means "coming." Advent was a time of penitence, abstinence, and prayer. For those of the Christian faith, the period of long nights is about the expectation of a miracle: the coming of the light. It is not an accident that Christ's Mass - the celebration of the birth of the Son of God - corresponds to the winter solstice - the rebirth of the Sun.

She makes the point that since the arrival of electric lights, this season has become one of hurry and busyness. But in the old days, it would have been a time of slow, quiet reflection. Long nights with no light means more time literally in the dark! Imagine complete darkness with perhaps only the moonlight to see by. Can you imagine the pent-up expectation for light? And what comes along three to four days after the solstice? We celebrate Christ's birth - the light has come. Daylight returns and we can see clearly again. I love it.

One of the classic Christmas cd's in my collection is the first Micheal W. Smith Christmas recording (ok, so it was a cassette tape when I first heard it. Now I have the CD!) The song "Lux Venit" was included on it - translation from Latin:

Lux venit: "the light has come"
Sursum corda: "look upwards hearts"


Lux Venit Lyrics

The solstice is a time to celebrate that even in our darkest hour, God heard our cries and sent a shining light into our darkness - Jesus Christ. Look upwards hearts. The light has come.

Here's a Good Article

I found this link today: The Good Shepherds. It's an article posted at Christianity Today about the (Christian) Agrarian movement. It touches on the Christian aspects of agrarianism, but doesn't go into much detail. But it's a good "intro" if anyone is interested.

Work

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. -Robert Louis Stevenson

Blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness.
-Thomas Carlyle

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.
-Arnold Toynbee

This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. -Alan Watts, Work as Play

A Timely Conversation

I was going to write about something fun today, like transfats or GMO's or similar, but I've got to interrupt my regularly scheduled blogging for some commentary on the evil events that took place on the Virginia Tech campus yesterday. Leave it to WorldNetDaily to provide some fabulous coverage and editorials concerning what happened. Here are a few:

How to Prevent Next Massacre, by Joseph Farah
You're Dead, I'm Healing, by Dennis Prager
Needed: More Americans with Guns, by Andrew Longman

People once again are clamoring for more gun control laws, but no one seems to have noticed that what the murderer did was already against the law. Laws didn't stop him from committing a crime. But gun control laws did prevent responsible people from defending themselves and other innocents. One person with a concealed carry permit in that engineering building could have prevented several dozen deaths. In fact, the killer may have reconsidered his plans if he knew there would likely be armed people in that building.

I think it is a tragedy that so many young men today are only being trained in violence through R-rated slasher movies and video games; and not in a healthy, responsible, manner, such as through gun safety courses and a constantly attentive father who teaches them to channel their "violent energies" for defending innocent people. Would it not have been good for someone so trained to have stopped the killer yesterday? Instead, what we have is a society that overwhelmingly values complete non-violence, which opens up the door for evil to violently conquer. And why not? There are no good guys to fight back. This belief is why I would never make it in the Amish community. That and my love affair with electricity.

I currently know of at least one responsible person we see regularly at a weekly gathering of a large number of people who has a concealed carry permit. Personally, I feel safer in this gathering of people knowing that he is there. Let's say you could choose between two classrooms in that Norris building in which to be a student: one completely unarmed, and one with a well-trained concealed carry permit holder who was "packing heat". Which would you choose?

This is a controversial topic, I know, but if you decide to leave a comment to this post, please at least leave a real first name. I won't take anonymous comments on this post. I assume my opinion is in the minority, but I won't mind if anyone has a well-organized opinion on the contrary they'd like to post. I'd just like to know who's writing it.

Brave New World vs. 1984

Today is the second anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo. At the time she died, I wrote several blog posts about the politics surrounding the ruling to allow her to dehydrate. Her brother recently wrote an article for WorldNetDaily that fairly summarizes the press’ treatment of her life and death. I so appreciate the “alternative press’” handling of cases like these. You do not get an accurate picture of what is happening from the lamestream media (I didn‘t make that up, I read it somewhere else, but I forget where). They can make you think and feel however they want you to, just by the way they word their stories. Which leads me to the subject of today’s post.

I just finished reading Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell. Huxley’s book first came out in 1932, Orwell’s in 1949. They are both referred to so often in our culture, that since I hadn’t read them before, I thought I’d better give it a shot. They are what’s called “negative utopias” - visions of the future “perfect” society that obviously fall far short of real perfection. They are similar in that in both works, the value of the individual is nothing. All is for the good of collective society. Both societies are governed by an elite few. Huxley accomplishes this “good” through genetic engineering, conditioning, drugs, and encouraging promiscuous behavior. Orwell makes the accomplishment through force: continuous universal monitoring, constantly rewriting history, and physically reprogramming independent thinkers through torture.

We have a number of common words and phrases that come from these works: Big Brother, newspeak, “Orwellian”, thought police, thought crime, and doublethink all come from 1984. Huxley gives us the word soma (a drug used daily to even out people‘s emotions), as well as numerous plot line references in many modern books, movies, music, etc.

Basically, Brave New World keeps people in line through pleasure. 1984 controls through pain. We obviously have elements of both at work in our society today. More and more we are using genetic engineering to select for traits that we consider desirable. Conditioning is made easy through television, the press, and public schooling. Both adults and children are often drugged before even making an effort to discover the root cause of physical and psychological problems. Promiscuity is accepted and even encouraged. We are forced into allowing the government to decide whose lives are worth living and whose are not (quality of life has replaced sanctity of life as the overriding value). Computers and credit/bank cards allow tracking of almost everything we do or buy.

Here is what Neil Postman (in Amusing Ourselves to Death, a book I haven’t made it all the way through yet) says about the comparison between these two books:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.…In 1984,…people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

So, perhaps we could say that the United States is more like Brave New World, and any Muslim or Communist totalitarian regime is more like 1984. There are exceptions, of course. Such as the Terri Schiavo case, when government decides that death by dehydration is the best way to fix a disabled woman’s problems.

These are two very thought-provoking books. If you are a reader, you might consider reading them. I would not recommend them for anyone under 18 due to adult content. Bottom line: there will be no “perfect” societies this side of heaven. Jesus is the only perfector, and the fall of man through sin guarantees an imperfect world. We should all pray for wisdom in discerning evil and good.

A Break from the Lazy Blogger: Dresses

I came up with a great idea to break this "lazy blogger" streak I have going. I'm going to write about why I wear dresses. Actually, I do not wear wear dresses all the time. Not when I'm doing the chores or running on the treadmill. Nor when we go to amusement parks where I'm likely to ride some wild rides. It's good for us to articulate our reasoning behind things like this (good for the brain, and good to know why we do what we do), so I think I'll give it a shot. Obviously, this is a post geared towards Christian ladies.

First, I'll tell you what wearing dresses for me is not. It is not legalistic. I do not believe that wearing jeans is wrong. It is not a sin issue in any way. To me, this kind of thinking (legalism) is like always playing defense. We know that Satan attacks using "attractive immodesty". Therefore, we have to defend ourselves by not allowing certain types of clothing. My thoughts are that this just does not work. Anyway, we are free in Jesus, right?

At the same time, as Christians, we have to be thoughtful about what we wear. Immodesty is a stumbling block to many - the wearer and the viewer. Should we embrace legalism then? I don't think so. Do we offer ourselves up to the fashion industry and simply wear what we (they?) want without giving it any serious thought? What is needed in this case, is to consider playing offense, so to speak. Here are a few questions that might help us to dress well while on the offensive:

• How can I dress in a lovely, feminine way?
  
• How can I glorify God in my dress?
• What kind of clothing does my husband/father like me to wear in public?
• How can I dress in a way that will not cause my Christian brothers to stumble in their thought-life?
• How can I be a witness to others in the public arena without even saying a word?
• How can I teach my children that it is fun to glorify God in our dress, not restrictive?
  

You can probably see where I am going with this. I don't wear dresses because I feel that I must. I do it because it is a lovely way to glorify God with my life. It does not even take much effort! It is not the only lovely way to glorify God, but it is one way.

I have found that the only real drawback to wearing dresses is that sometimes I think others may assume I have fallen off the edge into legalism. Let me assure you that this is not the case. I am not one to overly care about what others think of me, but yet I would prefer for that not to be a stumbling block to others either.

We must also recognize that it is easy to find dresses that are not modest and will not glorify God. Simply "wearing a dress" is not all there is to it. You have to continue to think every time you shop. Giving your husband/father real veto power helps, too.

It has been three years now since I have started to mull all of these things over, and it has been an enjoyable three years. I wasn't sure I could do it at first. I didn't have very many dresses, and it just seemed like it would be a hassle to dress up every day. So I decided to try it for one week to see how it would work. I loved it! No hassles, no problems. Later, for variety, I found some nice-looking skirts, dresses, and jumpers at the Goodwill store for just a few dollars each. And the rest...is history.